Method for in vitro assay of soluble fibrin by generating specific degradation products

ABSTRACT

The invention concerns a method for assaying soluble fibrin in a sample, in which said sample is brought into the presence of a plasminogen activator with a high specificity for soluble fibrin (PA-Fb sp) and the soluble fibrin count in the sample is measured by measuring the difference between the count of fibrin degradation products obtained after degrading soluble fibrin with PA-Fb sp and the base count of fibrin degradation products determined before bringing the sample into the presence of PA-Fb sp.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

The present application is a divisional of prior U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/373,614 filed Feb. 25, 2003 which is a continuation of International Application No. PCT/FRO1/02628, filed Aug. 17, 2001, which was published in French, which claims priority from French Application No. 00/10999, filed Aug. 28, 2000, all of which are incorporated herein by reference.

The present invention relates to a method for assaying soluble fibrin by generating specific degradation products in a blood sample.

When coagulation is activated, thrombin is generated that causes the formation of fibrin deposits and the formation of soluble fibrin.

Thrombin detaches fibrinopeptide A from the fibrinogen molecule, causing the generation of fibrin monomers on which the “A” polymerisation sites, which were masked in the fibrinogen, are unmasked, causing an interaction between the “A” sites of the fibrin monomer with accessible “a” sites on both fibrinogen and on fibrin. Next, fibrinopeptide B is liberated, causing “B” polymerisation sites to be unmasked, causing an interaction between the “B” sites of a molecule of fibrin monomer with accessible “b” sites on both fibrinogen and fibrin monomers.

When the quantity of thrombin is very high (in vitro tests), all of the fibrinogen is transformed into fibrin monomers, which then polymerise by interaction of sites “A” and “a”, and “B” with “b”, to produce a clot of fibrin. In vivo, however, much less thrombin is generated. The generation of fibrin monomers is much less explosive and thus, a portion of the fibrin monomers will polymerise to produce fibrin (thrombus) and a further portion will react with fibrinogen where sites a and b are accessible or with fibrinogen degradation products to produce a soluble fibrin in which fibrin monomers are associated with fibrinogen.

Soluble fibrin is determined in order to study whether coagulation activation exists in a patient, the presence of soluble fibrin in the blood, in particular in plasma, providing evidence for such activation.

This determination is a necessary complement to assaying D-dimers formed by fibrinolysis of the fibrin constituting the thrombus, which is also a marker of the coagulation activation process. The D-dimer count in plasma is increased when the clot degrades in vivo.

For this reason, if thrombus is present and is in the process of degrading, the D-dimer count will be increased, regardless of whether coagulation persists or is stopped; in contrast, the soluble fibrin count does not increase any more if coagulation is stopped and in contrast, will increase if coagulation persists.

Specific measurement of the soluble fibrin content in plasma with respect to the D-dimer count thus allows:

-   -   1. determination of whether a coagulation process is present in         a patient at the moment the sample is taken;     -   2. evaluation of the coagulo-lytic balance. The base D-dimer         count is a reflection of thrombus degradation in vivo; the         D-dimer count obtained after adding the thrombolytic agent to         the plasma represents the sum of the base D-dimers and that         originating from degradation of the fibrin in circulation (or         soluble fibrin).

The earliest methods for assaying fibrin that can be cited include the ethanol test (1, 2, 9) or the protamine sulphate test (3, 4, 5, 7). However, those tests are not very specific (9, 10) and not very sensitive (10). Further, large fibrinogen counts (>5 g/l) perturb the results obtained with ethanol tests and with protamine sulphate tests. Finally, the protamine sulphate test results can be difficult to interpret (6, 8).

A further method for detecting soluble fibrin is based on a technique for haemagglutination of red corpuscles sensitised with fibrin monomers using the method described by Largo (11, 12). That type of test is, for example, sold by Diagnostica Stago as the FS Test.

That technique, while it is very simple, can sometimes lack sensitivity and lends itself in particular to diagnosis of disseminated intravascular coagulation. However, it cannot detect smaller amounts of soluble fibrin (local thromboses, exploring the effectiveness of an anti-coagulating drug).

Currently, other techniques for assaying soluble fibrin are based on the use of monoclonal antibodies detecting unmasked epitopes in fibrin and masked in fibrinogen or the products of fibrin or fibrinogen degradation (13-14). However, direct assay using monoclonal antibodies results in soluble fibrin counts that vary depending on the commercial antibody used.

The authors of the present invention propose an approach that differs from those of the prior art, that is particularly simple and rapid, to evaluate the coagulo-lytic balance in a patient. This is more sensitive than the haemagglutination method described above. It has the advantage, compared with tests using monoclonal antibodies, of employing the same manner to detect circulating fibrin (soluble) and that already degraded in vivo, thus providing a very precise evaluation of the coagulo-lytic balance.

In the method of the present invention, the soluble fibrin present in a sample is measured after generating soluble fibrin degradation products, during incubation of the sample with a plasminogen activator with a high specificity and/or high affinity for fibrin (PA-Fb sp). The difference between the count of degradation products obtained after degradation of soluble fibrin with PA-Fb sp and that of the degradation products of the base fibrin, measured before bringing the sample into contact with the PA-Fb sp, allows the plasmatic soluble fibrin count in the sample to be measured.

Thus, the invention provides a method for assaying soluble fibrin in a biological sample, in which said sample is brought into the presence of a plasminogen activator with a high specificity and/or high affinity for fibrin (PA-Fb sp) and the soluble fibrin count in the sample is measured by measuring the difference between the count of degradation products obtained after degrading soluble fibrin with PA-Fb sp and the base count of fibrin degradation products determined for said sample before bringing it into the presence of PA-Fb sp.

The method for assaying soluble fibrin of the invention in a biological sample comprises the steps of:

-   -   assaying the fibrin degradation products contained in a plasma         sample;     -   bringing the blood plasma sample into contact with a Pa-Fb sp         under conditions that can degrade the soluble fibrin contained         in the sample into its degradation products;     -   assaying the fibrin degradation products in the sample incubated         with Pa-Fb sp;     -   determining the soluble fibrin corresponding to the difference         between the count of fibrin degradation products evaluated after         incubation with PA-Fb sp and the count of fibrin degradation         products, evaluated in the untreated sample.

The reagent used to assay the degradation products is selected to measure a given group of degradation products. As an example, antibodies with a set specificity for a particular type of degradation products is used.

The biological sample is preferably a biological liquid, for example a blood or plasma sample, or from drainage.

The invention also concerns the use of a plasminogen activator with a high specificity and/or high affinity for fibrin (i.e., which only activates the plasminogen in the fibrin) in a method for assaying soluble fibrin by generating specific degradation products. It also concerns a kit for carrying out the method described above.

A number of plasminogen activators are known. Certain, however, degrade both fibrinogen and fibrin, such as streptokinase and urokinase (15). Such compounds are not suitable for the method of the invention as they result in the degradation of fibrinogen, giving rise to fibrinogen degradation products, which interfere with those resulting from fibrin degradation.

A second group of plasminogen activators is constituted by compounds described as having a high specificity for degrading fibrin compared with fibrinogen. The method of the invention advantageously exploits the specificity of this second group of compounds.

Different compounds with such fibrin specificity and/or affinity have been described in the literature.

Known examples are:

-   -   tissue plasminogen activator (t-PA) or its derivatives, such as         TNK-t-PA, which is a mutant of t-PA with a very high specificity         for fibrin (16);     -   the activator from Desmodus rotundus saliva (bat-tPA or         v-PA=Vampire bat salivary plasminogen activator) or its         derivatives: DSPAs=Desmodus rotundus salivary PAs, FEKP=DSPA         alpha 1 and alpha 2, EKP=DSPA beta, KP=DSPA gamma, (17);     -   Staphylokinase (SAK), a polypeptide secreted by Staphylococcus         aureus (18-19) or one of its mutants (20).

The method of the present invention is preferably carried out on a plasma sample. The soluble fibrin count is determined by measuring the degradation products resulting from the action of PA Fb sp. If necessary, the method is validated by using a positive control obtained from a normal plasma treated with traces of thrombin so as to induce coagulation activation responsible for generating soluble fibrin without, however, resulting in the formation of a clot.

To obtain the positive plasma control, the plasma is initially incubated with thrombin or other coagulation activator for a set period. The coagulation process that is then initiated is subsequently blocked by adding an activator inhibitor to prevent the reaction from continuing. When this activator is thrombin, hirudin or heparin are used as the inhibitor, for example.

The plasma incubation period and the concentrations of the coagulation activator and blocking inhibitor are advantageously determined so as to obtain all of the coagulation activation steps that precede the onset of clot formation.

Incubation in the presence of a coagulation activator (thrombin) is preferably carried out for an incubation period of 2 minutes, at ambient temperature. The inhibitor is then added in a large excess to ensure that coagulation is blocked.

-   -   If hirudin is used, it is advantageously employed in a final         concentration of 100 μg/ml for a final thrombin concentration of         0.18 U/ml.     -   If heparin is used, it is used in a final concentration of 500         U/ml when the final concentration of thrombin used is 0.18 U/ml.

Evaluation of the soluble fibrin of the present invention employs a first step for degrading the soluble fibrin with PA Fb sp, followed by measuring the specific degradation products resulting from the action of PA Fb sp.

It is vital that the results of the method of the invention are obtained as rapidly as possible, while being representative of the quantity of soluble fibrin present in the sample. To this end, the conditions for use of PA Fb sp must be determined such that degradation of the soluble fibrin is rapid and such that it is not accompanied by “contaminating” degradation of the circulating plasmatic fibrinogen, giving rise to degradation products interfering with those originating from soluble fibrin in the assay.

The doses of PA Fb sp are selected so as to induce the greatest increase in the count of fibrin degradation products in the positive controls, and a practically zero increase in the negative controls (i.e., not treated with a coagulation activator).

Different fibrinolysis activators allowing specific degradation of fibrin can be used in the context of the present invention. Advantageously, the PA Fb sp is selected from the group formed by the activators cited above, namely: t-PA or its derivative, v-PA or its derivatives, and SAK or one of its mutants. Preferably, t-PA or SAK is used, more preferably tPA.

When the samples are incubated for 15 minutes at 37° C., the final concentration of staphylokinase used is in the range 1 to 12 μg/ml. The final retained concentration is 10 μg/ml. The incubation period can be modified and its variation is determined as a function of the nature and concentration of the PA Fb sp used.

The t-PA is advantageously used in final concentrations in the range of 1 to 2.5 μg/ml. Preferably, the t-PA is used in a concentration of 2 μg/ml.

Different soluble fibrin degradation products exist that can be specifically detected. In a preferred implementation, the D-dimer count resulting from the action of PA Fb sp on soluble fibrin is measured, i.e., the concentration of D-dimers resulting from the action of PA Fb sp on soluble fibrin is evaluated (D-dimers after the action of PA Fb sp—base D-dimers before the action of PA Fb sp).

The D-dimers resulting from the degradation of soluble fibrin in the presence of PA Fb sp can be assayed using any routine assay technique such as enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) type methods, latex bead agglutination sensitive methods, immunochromatography methods, etc. Examples of different commercially available D-dimer assay tests that can be cited are ASSERACHROM D-Di or STA LIATEST D-Di, both sold by Diagnostica Stago. However, within the context of the present invention, the conditions for use of the ELISA test from ASSERACHROM D-Di have advantageously been modified to shorten the test (15 min incubation with immobilised antibody and 15 minutes with the peroxidase-labelled antibody).

In addition to the DD/E fragment, other fibrin degradation products exist, such as YD/DY, YD/DXD complexes, which can be evaluated.

As illustrated in the following examples (see Example no. 3), the method of the invention can be carried out on patients presenting with a coagulation activation either before commencing therapy or during anti-coagulating treatment or after stopping anti-coagulant therapy. It allows not only the change in a coagulation activation process to be evaluated, in particular in the context of coagulation activation diagnosis, but also allows the effectiveness of an anti-coagulant therapy to be evaluated.

In a further aspect, the present invention concerns a kit for assaying the dose of soluble fibrin in a sample, characterized in that it comprises:

-   -   a positive control for the presence of soluble fibrin obtained         using the protocol described above;     -   a negative control constituted by a control plasma;     -   PA Fb sp in individual quantities for a sample or in a quantity         sufficient for multiple samples;     -   a reagent for assaying D-dimers; and     -   optionally, a buffer for diluting samples, such as a pH 7.4         phosphate buffer containing 0.1% of foetal calf serum and 0.05%         of Tween 20.

The positive and negative plasma controls are advantageously freeze-dried.

The preferred PA Fb sp is t-PA.

The D-dimers are assayed, for example, with a reagent for an ELISA type method, such as ASSERACHROM D-Di, or a reagent for a test sensitive to latex particle agglutination, such as STA LIATEST D-Di, both sold by Diagnostica Stago.

The following examples illustrate the present invention.

EXAMPLE N° 1

Choice of thrombin concentration used to obtain a positive plasma control comprising soluble fibrin:

The positive plasma control was prepared using the following protocol:

Normal plasma 300 μl Human thrombin (Stago ref. 00896),  30 μl 2 U/ml Incubation, 2 min at laboratory temperature Hirudin (Knoll) 100 μg/ml (final concentration) or Heparin (Choay) 500 u/ml (final concentration)

Verify:

-   -   that there is no clot formation in the tube.     -   that a commercially available soluble fibrin detection test is         positive (eg., FS test from Stago).

Two possibilities shown in Table I can be retained.

TABLE I Tube no 1 2 3 4 I-A: Tube 2 retained. Citrated normal 300 μl 300 μl 300 μl 300 μl plasma Thrombin 30 μl at 30 μl at 30 μl at 30 μl at 4 U/ml 2 U/ml 1 U/ml 0.5 U/ml Incubation for 2 minutes at ambient temperature Presence of clot + − − − Heparin or 500 units 500 units 500 units 500 units hirudin 100 μg 100 μg 100 μg 100 μg I-B: Tube 3 retained Citrated normal 300 μl 300 μl 300 μl 300 μl plasma Thrombin 30 μl at 30 μl at 30 μl at 30 μl at 4 U/ml 2 U/ml 1 U/ml 0.5 U/ml Incubation for 10-15 minutes at ambient temperature Presence of clot + + − − Heparin or 500 units 500 units 500 units 500 units hirudin 100 μg 100 μg 100 μg 100 μg

EXAMPLE N° 2

Determination of quantity of PA Fb sp to be used under defined incubation conditions

To carry out the method of the invention, the quantity of activator to be added to the sample must be such that it induces significant generation of D-dimers in the positive control plasma, as obtained in Example n° 1, and an insignificant generation of D-dimers in a negative plasma control (control not treated with thrombin).

Incubation of control plasmas and positive control plasmas (n=21) was carried out with different doses of PA Fb sp for 15 minutes at 37° C. At the end of the incubation period, the D-dimers were determined by Liatest or by rapid ELISA (D-Di Stago) (incubation for 15 minutes at 37° C. with capture antibodies and 15 minutes at 37° C. with revealing antibodies).

The results shown in Table I were obtained with the ELISA test.

Substantially analogous results were obtained with the Liatest (n=5).

TABLE II Degradation of soluble fibrin by increasing quantities of t-PA and SAK D-dimers (ng/ml) Soluble fibrin (ng/ml) Nega- Positive con- Nega- Positive con- tive trol (treated tive trol (treated control with thrombin) control with thrombin) Without PA Fb 375 375 sp addition Staphylokinase 10 μg/ml 400 1750 <50 1375 2 μg/ml 390 1615 <50 1225 1.5 μg/ml 375 1700 <50 1325 1 μg/ml 350 1657 <50 1305 0.5 μg/ml 410 1125 <50 715 t-PA 2 μg/ml 350 1790 <50 1415 1 μg/ml 360 1420 <50 1045 0.5 μg/ml 360 1210 <50 835

The dose of PA Fb sp selected is that which induces:

-   -   an increase of <300 ng/ml in untreated control plasmas (negative         controls);     -   the greatest increase in positive control plasmas.

From these results, it appears that the preferred final concentrations of PA Fb sp to be used are:

-   -   2 μg/ml for t-PA: under these conditions, the dose of t-PA that         can be neutralised by PAI is negligible;     -   10 μg/ml for SAK (lower doses of SAK have caused poor         degradability of soluble fibrin in some patients or some         positive controls, probably due to the presence of         anti-staphylokinase in the sample, which anti-staphylokinase can         appear as a result of staphylococcus infection).

EXAMPLE N° 3

Results obtained with healthy volunteers and in patients presenting with suspected activation of coagulation (due to an increase in D-dimers)

The method was carried out on two plasma samples using the protocol indicated above:

incubating the plasmas for 15 minutes at 37° C. in the presence of t-PA (2 μg/ml) or SAK (10 μg/ml).

The D-dimers generated were assayed using an ELISA test as described above.

A. Results obtained with healthy volunteer

TABLE III S.F. (ng/ml) Control plasmas + t-PA (n = 21) 147 ± 100 ng/ml Control plasmas + IIa + t-PA (n = 21) 2128 ± 1219 ng/ml (extreme values: 742-3660) Control plasmas + SAK (n = 11) 64 ± 82 ng/ml (extreme values: 0-215) Control plasmas + IIa + SAK (n = 11) 1700 ± 1880 ng/ml (extreme values: 250-5000)

B. Results obtained with patients presenting with elevated D-dimer count

(Experiment carried out by rapid ELISA)

TABLE IV Examples found in our study: D-dimer count D-dimer count Soluble after adding before adding fibrin count t-PA(ng/ml) t-PA (ng/ml) (ng/ml) Patient from group 1 5420 510 4910 Patient from group 2 1316 1234 82 Patient from group 3 30162 20699 9463

CONCLUSIONS

The method of the invention can separate the patients into three groups, depending on their soluble fibrin and D-dimer plasma counts. The characteristics of each of these three groups are summarised in Table V below:

Soluble fibrin D-dimers (ng/ml) (ng/ml) Conclusion Group 1 >500 +/− Formation of a clot that is not yet degraded Group 2 <300 +/+++ Presence of a thrombus, but coagulation halted Group 3 >500 +++ Coagulation persists, associated with degradation of clot.

As indicated above, the method of the invention not only allows the change in the coagulation activation process to be followed, but it can also evaluate the efficiency of an anti-coagulant drug, and can ascertain whether stopping the drug re-activates coagulation.

Group 1: early coagulation activation with an increase in soluble fibrin, without elevating the D-dimers.

Group 2: patients for whom coagulation activation is halted (effective drug) but the thrombus already formed continues to degrade (normal soluble fibrin count, D-dimer count elevated).

Group 3: patients presenting with coagulation activation with clot degradation in vivo (simultaneous elevation of soluble fibrin and D-dimers): drug not effective enough.

EXAMPLE N° 4

Summary of technique employed:

Reagents:

pH 7.4 buffer

Purified human thrombin (Stago, ref 00896)

t-PA (Boehringer)

Aprotinin. Store solution at 4° C.

D-Dimer kit.

The method employed is summarised in Table VI.

TABLE VI Protocol employed to assay soluble fibrin by D-dimer generation. Plasma 200 t-PA (20 μg/ml)(final conc. 2 μg/ml) 20 Keep at 37° C. for 15 min Aprotinin 20 Dilute sample as function of base D-dimers ( 1/20- 1/1000) Plate Asserachrom D-Di Diluted sample 200 Cover wells and keep at 37° C. for 15 min Wash three times Human anti-D fragment labelled with peroxidase 200 Cover wells and keep at 37° C. for 15 min Wash three times OPD/H₂O₂ substrate 200 Wait precisely three minutes for each sample, then add: either 3M H₂SO₄ 50 or 1M HCl 100 Measure absorbance at 492 nm

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1. A kit for assaying soluble fibrin in a sample, comprising: PA-Fb sp in individual quantities for a single sample or in a quantity sufficient for multiple samples; and a reagent to assay soluble fibrin degradation products.
 2. A kit according to claim 1, further comprising: positive and negative control plasmas in freeze-dried form.
 3. A kit according to claim 1, wherein the PA-Fb sp is t-PA.
 4. A kit according to claim 1, wherein the reagent for assaying soluble fibrin degradation products is a reagent for enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) or for a LIATEST type test for sensitised latex particle agglutination.
 5. A kit according to claim 1, further comprising: a positive control for the presence of soluble fibrin.
 6. A kit according to claim 1, further comprising: a negative control constituted by a control plasma.
 7. A kit according to claim 1, comprising: a buffer for diluting samples.
 8. An assay method comprising the steps of: contacting a sample with a PA-Fb sp to generate an amount of fibrin degradation products; measuring said amount of fibrin degradation products; and comparing the amount of fibrin degradation products with the amount of fibrin degradation products of either a sample provided without contact with PA-FB sp or a positive control.
 9. A method according to claim 8, wherein the measured fibrin degradation products include D-dimers.
 10. A method according to claim 8, wherein PA-Fb sp has a low specificity and/or low affinity for fibrinogen.
 11. A method according to claim 8, wherein the PA-Fb sp is selected from the group consisting of: t-PA, t-PA derivatives, v-PA, v-PA derivatives, SAK, SAK mutants, and combinations thereof.
 12. A method for assaying soluble fibrin in a sample, comprising: measuring a difference in an amount of fibrin degradation products between a sample including a plasminogen activator with a high specificity and/or affinity for soluble fibrin (PA-Fb sp) and a sample excluding said PA-FB sp and wherein said PA-Fb sp is SAK in a final concentration of no more than about 12 μg/ml of said sample. 